E.R.R

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Buhari Refuses To Meet With Saraki Nigerian Senate President?

President Buhari belongs to everybody?. How can he and Nigeria succeed in this type of environment if he don't forgive. Democracy is a learning curve. You learn as you go. Next time no body should take trip to do sectional and tribal meeting against the interest of Nigeria.

Nigerians and majority of Nigerian voters forgave President Buhari and gave him many chances after Over throwing Shagari Government by Military Coup by giving him many chances and position in life and governance, but now he cannot forgive other people. like Senator Saraki. Wonders cant end in this confused and selfish world we live in. Saraki is a Democrat and Nigeria Democracy is a learning process and he should be forgiven . Next time those tribalists that want to have tribal meeting at the conference center, should know that constitutional mandated meeting call by the Senate at an appointed time is more important than their tribalistic meeting called at the same time just to hurt and diminish other people by usurping power by favoritism. People are wiser today. Saraki is a hero.

Nigeria's Senate President, Bukola Saraki and President Muhammadu Buhari President Muhammadu Buhari has resisted fresh moves by the Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, to formally meet with him, SUNDAY PUNCH has learnt.An official in the Presidency who confided in one of our correspondents on Saturday said the President and the Senate President had only met once since the latter’s emergence as the leader of the senate.The official said all efforts by Saraki to have another meeting with the president, after the party’s National Executive Council meeting penultimate Friday, were rebuffed by Buhari.The reliable source said the president of the Senate had at different times reached out to people to help him persuade Buhari to grant him audience.Saraki had defied the All Progressives Congress to contest for the position of the senate president on June and emerged victorious after a controversial election that excluded a sizeable number of senators. The APC had endorsedSenator Ahmed Lawan as its candidate for the senate presidency.The government official who spoke to SUNDAY PUNCH said, “The truth is that the President is still displeased with what transpired in the National Assembly, especially the Senate.“Their encounter during the APC National Executive Council meeting, when they shook hands, was the first meeting between President Buhari and Saraki since he emerged as the President of the Senate.“We are aware that Saraki has been going about begging people to assist him to plead with the President to meet with him. That was one of the reasons why he visited former President Obasanjo.“I can tell you that the President is very pained by what happened. He felt that since he had been transparent with the party, everybody should play that way. But since Saraki took that path, the President was and he is still pained.Let us just hope that at the end of it all, they will be able to put the matter behind them.”Also speaking to SUNDAY PUNCH, a highly placed party official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, told one of our correspondents that the handshake between the President and Saraki during the recent NEC meeting of the APC “was for journalists.”He stated, “President Buhari is still upset because of what happened. If you read in-between the line his speech during our last NEC meeting, he reminded people who joined the party after it was formed not to rubbish the sacrifices made by party leaders.“It was not for the fun of it that the President took time to go down the memory lane to trace the genesis of the APC.“Although the President said he was prepared to work with anybody who emerged as leader in the National Assembly, he did not envisage a scenario where Saraki would emerge as the Senate President and Ike Ekweremadu, a member of the PDP, would emerge as the deputy president of the Senate.”Asked whether or not the President might change his mind anytime soon, the source said, “Not until the governors, who were mandated by the NEC to resolve the matter in the National Assembly, bring the matter under control.”When contacted, the Special Adviser to the Senate President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Yusuph Olaniyonu, said there was no cause for alarm. During a telephone interview on Saturday, Olaniyonu said Buhari had repeatedly toldNigerians that he believed in the independence of the parliament.He explained that Buhari had had cause to formally communicate with on “state issues” and that they exchanged warm pleasantries at the APC NEC meeting held in Abuja.He said, “The president of a nation can have private discussions with the Senate President or the Speaker of the House of Representatives anytime he likes.“At the moment, President Buhari, probably wants the issue around the National Assembly leadership positions formally resolved before calling for such meetings. He has said that he would not involve himself in the affairs of the legislature and we should respect his views.”Olaniyonu explained that Saraki and Buhari had been having regular official communication and that such would continue because the Senate would have to approve all appointments made by the President.Asked why the President had met with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, without meeting with Saraki up till now, Olaniyonu answered that he was not aware of the Buhari-Dogara meeting.He said, “I am not aware of that meeting you talked about. If the meeting had held, the picture taken afterwards would have been published in the dailies. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think there was anything like that. “Also, the spokesperson for the pro-Saraki Senators of Like Minds, Dino Melaye, told one of our correspondents on Saturday that Saraki and Buhari met and had fruitful deliberation at the NEC meeting of the APC.“The President and the Senate President met at the NEC meeting. We are all awaiting the outcome of the peace moves initiated at the meeting. For now, there is no cause for concern,” he said.When contacted, the Special Adviser to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina declined comments

On Sun, Jul 12, 2015 at 6:55 PM, Ugo Harris Ukandu <abujarock@gmail.com> wrote: Nigerians, listen to Senate President Bukola Saraki and be fair in your judgment of him.listen to him without prejudice.

Speaking during an interview session Saraki said, ”Honestly, nobody in his wildest calculation ever thought that some senators would not be present on the day of inauguration. In my own view, most of those who worked closely with us would not be surprised about the outcome of the election because I worked hard. I had direct contact with every single senator. I was not relying on anybody. Even within our party, I worked hard and was in touch with everybody, seeing them, and talking to them. We began to build confidence. Also on the other side, the Peoples Democratic Party senators, I was talking to them.

”That was the reason I laughed when people said that I had a deal that led to the emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as Deputy Senate President. I did not make any deal for Ekweremadu to win. I did not need a deal because as I said, I worked hard. Everybody who is a senator. So, I was canvassing and campaigning for their votes and some of you will remember the meeting we held at the Transcorp Hotel which the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, co-chaired with Senator Ibrahim Gobir. If you heard most of them there, the position they took was that ‘this is the Senate President we want’. This was not on any party line. Those who came from PDP, their view were that ‘this is the Senate President we believe in and whom we believe can lead us.’

”So, when I heard people talking about a deal, it is strange to me. Our success was because one was able to convince a lot of our colleagues and they accepted that this is the person that was going to lead and as such, the outcome of the Senate President’s election was positive. But the fact is that we worked hard for it and also prayed about it. We campaigned and won the confidence of our colleagues even within the APC itself. I believed that the way the events turned out was some evidence of faith and destiny because sometimes, I sit down and still wonder how some of our colleagues found themselves in the International Conference Centre. I mean, if there had been a situation where the clerk announced that the event had been postponed, it would have been a different thing. I am sure if you ask some of my colleagues what actually happened, they will not find an answer to it other than that there must be a hand of fate and destiny in it”.

”What I am saying is that PDP senators had announced to the public that they were supporting me without my having a meeting with them. PDP as a party told the public at about 10 pm on June 8 that in their own meeting, majority of their senators had told the party that ‘this is who they were going to vote for and the party decided to agree with them.’ So, even in their own interest strategically, they decided that since 30 of their senators were going to vote for me anyway, the remaining had better joined and concurred. It was not until 2 am on June 9 that they called us to tell us that this was what they had decided and when they said that they had a candidate for the position of Deputy Senate President, we also told them that we had a candidate in the name of Senator Ali Ndume. It was our own calculation that after we would have finished the Senate President’s election, the two groups in APC would meet and agree on a candidate.

”We never in our own team thought the other group would not turn up for the inauguration. By the time we got there, we were 25 or thereabout and they were over 40 PDP members. So, there was no way they would not have defeated us and that was what happened. When people said it was a deal, I said to them that if the clerk had started the proceedings in the House of Representatives first before proceeding to the Senate, it is the House of Representatives, I am sure, that would have had a Deputy Speaker from PDP. It was the two hours the clerk of the National Assembly spent with us that gave the time to House members to return to the House and have enough number to prevent that kind of event.